We lost our first snakes today. It's been a rough month.

[hamhouke]

Two of the three baby corns we bought at the November show in KC died last night.  We found them this morning and really lost it.  Sugar and Spectra, candy cane and ghost females.  Thier brother, Spice survived them and appears fine.  I have been searching all day to see if I was doing something wrong, but I can't explain why they would have both died so suddenly without any signs.  I fed them Tuesday, they had both just pooped and had clean sheads.  They were alert and fed with no problems.  My house never gets below 72 degrees, so they did not get too cold last night.

I don't know what happened, but I have quarintened Spice and am keeping a close eye on him.  He is an Abbot's Okatee, so completely different genetics, but from the same breeder.  Has anyone had a similar experence with baby corns?  Could anybody give me a clue what I may be doing wrong?


They are kept on crushed walnut, could that have anything to do with it.  They are not fed in cage, and are seperated for feeding in a substrate-less container.  No impaction risk, unless they somehow ingested it in cage at some other point.  I am at a loss and I don't want something to happen to Spice.

With all the wierd stuff I keep (healthy) I would have never thought my first loss would be a corn, let alone 2 in one night.  I am really freaked out now and second-guessing everything now. 

[smilts]

Were they kept in the same cage???   Ive had it happen once before and my husbandry is as near perfect as can be so it does happen without noticeable cause and it sux.  Mostly it is caused by sickness and  or parasites and  both are more easily spread if they are housed together.  I'm sorry for your loss hopefully you wont havet o go through it again.

[hamhouke]

Yes, I was keeping them together in the same cage.  They were all the same size, and they were fed seperately, but they stayed together.  I knew before hand that keeping them together tends to make it harder to know who pooped what, and sickness is more easily spread that way, but I got them at the same time from the same breeder and I figured they had likely all been exposed to each other enough that it wouldn't matter.  I could certianly be dead-wrong about that.  And, I would never house any of my boids together , period.  I just got it into my head somewhere that it wasn't such a big deal with corns.  Is it a "obvious noob mistake" to house corns together?

[smilts]

Besides the mentioned problems.  Young corns can be aggressive towards tank mates and at times one or the other has eaten the other one.   Also any snake housed together then has to compete for the best spots in the enclosure.  Its in general a really bad idea to house most reptiles together.

[1softkiss]

It really doesn't always have anything to do with the way you take care of a snake especially new ones that have just been introduced into your collection.

I'm SO sorry for your loss and quite honestly it sucks because I could better comprehend a snake dying on me if I could see there was a problem instead of none being noticeable.

There are sometimes genetic deformities and health related issues in young snakes that go unseen and some unfortunately do die before there is any indication there was a problem.

It really doesn't have to be anything that happened to them in their environment either with you or prior to you having them if it was a genetic problem.

[hamhouke]

Well, thank you for your sympathy.  My wife and I are still at a loss as to what caused their deaths.  And you are right 1softkiss, if I knew what happened, I would at least be able to make sure I didn't do it again.  I suppose we can live with, "It happens", though it is tough to accept.  I was surprised by just HOW attached my wife and I were to them.  We are softies by nature, but you wouldn't have guessed we had only had them since November by how broken up we are about it.

Again, thanks everybody.  OK, I'm starting to get upset again.

[Peter_Steele]

Sorry to here about your loss. I never really got into corn snakes but they do have some neat patterns on them. Maybe next time things will go better if you get more.

[illbeyoursoldier]

If they were brand new and you had only had them for a few days, I would contact the breeder and let them know. If I were the breeder and snakes from me had suddenly died I'd want to know, just to check out my own personal collection at home.

But don't beat yourself up too bad, buddy. Things like this just HAPPEN sometimes. Reptiles are very sensitive like that, and there are just no symptoms/signs, and no way you could have predicted/prevented it. I doubt it was your fault if your husbandry is to spec. I hope your other little guy is okay. <3

[hamhouke]

Well, the third corn is still doing great.  Feeding, alive and well.  I got the three at a local show on impulse, and honestly don't remember who the breeder was.  If I see him at the show in March, I will fill him in.